What is Soundcloud?

  • Soundcloud is an online audio distribution platform which allows musicians to collaborate, promote and distribute their music.

    It's free to join and kicks you off which a maximum storage space of 120 minutes of audio which is allocated based on song length rather than file size. That means you can upload up to 2 hours of full CD quality WAV, or AIFF files rather than MP3's.

    However, if you want the listener to be able to preview your music without waiting a long time for the song to download, it's advised that you upload tracks in mp3 file format for quicker access.

    Soundcloud allows 100 downloads per song with free membership. If you want to sell your song online you can provide external links within Soundcloud to your webstore, iTunes, Bandcamp, or any other platform where your music is sold.

    Once your music has been uploaded to Soundcloud, you continue to own your own music publishing and copyright. You can also choose to make your music available through a creative commons license. Creative Commons provide a range of copyright licenses freely available to the public which allows artist to mark their work with the freedoms that they want their music to carry. You can find out more at www.creativecommons.org.nz

    When your track is uploaded to Soundcloud, you can share your music through social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and Blogspots with a player widget.

    You and other Soundcloud members can leave feedback on any part of a song by flagging comments on the player widget.

    You can also view basic statistics on how many times your songs have been listened to by others.

    If you only want designated Soundcloud members to hear your songs and hide it from the public you can manually set your tracks to private access.

    All these features come with your free membership of Soundcloud. Annual payments will gain you more storage space, downloads, stylized widgets, and other unique features.

    Soundcloud currently has over 5 million users, and has proven to be extremely popular with DJ's, dance music, and hip hop artists as an effective platform for sharing their music, collaborating and networking with other artists across the world.